Heading down to Minehead in a few weeks. Never been down there before.
Have the choice of taking the full suss or 29er hardtail but not sure which will be the best for there. If there are plenty of gravel tracks and forestry roads, I’d rather take the 29er and do some xc stuff but if it’s more of a gnarrfest I’ll take the full suss.
Won’t have time to drive anywhere so it’ll be 2-3 hour loops from the town.
Your advice is greatly appreciated. Riding pics from the area appreciated too…

Full suss. 100%!

Tonnes of ‘XC’ riding around Luccombe and Horner Water. Long tough climbs followed by loose rocky descents, water bars, steepness, etc.

Depends what your FS is and how good / strong you are – dragging a heavy DH bike up the climbs would be murder; some of the descents on an out and out XC race bike are ‘challenging’

2-3 hours won’t get you far (distance wise) but plenty of smiles.

Much as above.
My choice for that area is short travel FS, although that can be tested on some of the downhills which can be testing especially after a wet winter brings rocks and rubble into the trails.

Sounds excellent. Full suss it is then!

You probably need some local knowledge to pick you a route. I don’t know the area south of Minehead / Wootton so don’t know if there is much to keep you occupied or how easy it is to cross to get to Horner, but if you want some pointers around Horner and Luccombe i can suggest a few.

Plenty around there, off Selworthy beacon down lynch combe is fun, bw down into Porlock weir, single track in hawkcombe woods. As above, don’t expect too many miles though.

Don’t forget you have to pass the Quantocks to get to Minehead.

don’t expect too many miles though

Most broken i’ve been on a bike was an all dayer in Exmoor. 30-odd miles, 1500m climbing, tough descending, crashing, blood, everything.

Point is – don’t get a map and draw a route based on distance as you’ll probably overestimate by a factor of 2; ie: if you normally average 10mph work on averaging 5-6. So if you have 2-3 hours – maybe 15 miles, and they’ll be tough.

There’s heaps of really good technical singletrack in the woods directly south of Minehead, (Avil Ball, Hopcott and Bratton). Its probably 20mins pedal from the town center to the top of the hill Most of the trails are on Strava so get your phone charged up and go exploring! You have chosen a good spot!

Exmoor has some great riding. Spent a week out there and did some great routes. we used the Nick Cotton guide books to assist us.
Worth heading over to Dunkery Beacon for a great ride and you can call in at Dunkery Beacon Guest House which also has a café open at the weekends.

I did a write up with some pics, see below:

Exmoor – A week of truly great riding.

do the porlock weir descent. Cracking.

The riding round there is great – lovely coastal stuff. Good stuff inland too. We normally stay at Wheddon Cross and there’s a couplde of routes round there.VG do a good routes book.

We got engaged on Dunkery Beacon

Here’s a tidy loop for you:

Minehead Cream Tea Loop

Done it hard tail but I’d go FS.

I just moved to Minehead 2 weeks ago. Not been our on the mtb yet as I’ve been recovering from a broken arm. I’ve ridden lots here in the past though, and as there’s been said already there’s loads of great riding. Hopefully I can start getting out in the next few weeks.

Cheers all – thanks for the route samcheese

We do a route similar to sam cheese , about 20 odd miles , we stop in Horner for eats so we aren’t bothered how long we are out for . Cracking descents , if you are interested in tagging along E Mail me at rolandjulie2001@yahoo.co.uk nearer the time and if we are about ( midweek) give us a shout 🙂

Nice ride go to the harbour and take the Bridleway up to top of North Hill and ride across Selworthy beacon and there are loads of tracks or go behind Minehead up over Grabbist hill and ride across ridge loads of tracks of there mind if you take the Bridleway down to Wotton Courtney and its wet your get plastered in wet RED MUD good descent another good descent is of the top of Dunkery Beacon down to Brockwell plenty of rocks in places.

I am from Minehead.
To relive boredom i have tried rigid 29er down fort william and raced down Glencoe.
You will be fine on a full susser. If you have some ability in your riding, rigid, HT, short travel susser will ramp up some excitement.
The Knights of Klunk used the area for a reason……….

There is no right or wrong bike, just the bike you have on that day, from epic xc to technical DH it’s all there (and the Quantocks too)

Nearest bikeshop is Pompeys in Minehead (say hello to Tim the mechanic)

Maybe don’t try to ride through the harbour, the mud is deep and smelly 🙂
Enjoy.

just wondering if there are any more gpx routes but perhaps a little shorter. Im going to Butlins in April and intend to escape the footy tournament on my Bronson.